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Rseat RS1 the racing sim cockpit review

by Design SyncNovember 23, 2018

A look into the Rseat RS1 simulator racing chassis design.

I consider myself a casual gamer with a passion in watching motor racing. I have a budget Logitech G29 wheel temporary clamped up on a cheap table that wobbles every time the wheel rumbles and a kitchen chair the slides around I press hard on the break peddle. I’m ditching this setup for something better, it’s an excuse for me to take serious action and to do justice for my PS4, GT Sport, Project Cars 2 and F1 2018 game. It was time to revolutionise my racing setup. Without being able to experience any of these sim rigs onsite, I had to do most of the research online, reading forum and watching Youtube reviews. I guest it’s just like what you are doing right now. I stumbled across the official Rseat site, I actually had my eyes glued to the N1 model a visually appealing cage like in Sci-Fi movies. However that was too beautify big an bulk for my purpose. So my eyes shifted and geared more towards a smaller cockpit, the RS1. The model that was just right for my purpose. A match make that could just could be perfect. I was constantly looking at the nice detail rendered images and comparing details to detail among the other sim chassis. With an Australian price tag of $1170.23 plus another $63.78 for shipping and slap a $281.71 price gouging import tax, which totals $1515.72 AUD. That is pricey huh, which is why I had to find reason to justify slurping my money around. Eventually, the Rseat RS1 white frame and white seat came across the winning line, I was lured to clicked on the buy button. Why did the RS1 came in 1st place? It was simple, it just looked better than the rest of the competition, my design ego and experience gave judgement that this is the one despite the hefty price tag. I just had to believe every other aspect will fall into place when I receive the goods, since there is no way I’ll be returning for a refund.

Having made that determining click, I eagerly waited the for my first racing chassis to arrive. Weighting about 55kgs shipped within a week to my door step all the way from Belgium to Australia. Package in a giant box neatly bubble wrapped, unfortunately there is a few bings and bangs, but nothing too major to get annoyed. It came with all the tools and extra nuts and blots to get me fired up. Moving on I studied the instructions and started putting the pieces together. Most of the frame is already pre-assemble with nuts and bolts inserted. You just had to take them out, make a few adjustment to your liking and bolt on the those extra parts. It is possible to build it on your own, however it would be ideal to get a helper since some of the parts are quite heavy and bulky. Took me about 3 hours on this one man band to glory, like a mechanic building this rig took patient to align and get everything fitted well together.

Made out of high quality epoxy powder coated metal tubing bent to form a classy modern day racing cage. Like the exterior body of a hot looking sports car, when built the RS1 turning heads. The seat is very comfortable, me being 178cm tall, it snuggles well around my 84cm waist line. It fit perfectly well for most wheels, do check their full listed specs on the Rseat website. Steering, mount, pedal distance and angle are all adjustable to a degree for the perfect fit. As a designer, ideally I would prefer to pull levers on the go for ease and simpler use but like a engineer mechanic you’ll have to take out the hextool to fine tune your perfect position. I guess it would be a once off tightening nuts and bolts unless you have friends over wanting to give it a go.

Yes it’s true, that made in China tag line is nowhere to be seen on the package or marketing campaign. How often do you get to brag about a product being made in EU? Like the Mercedes Benz, BMW or Volkswagen, you can raise your chest raises and proudly say it’s built with quality. Well that is until I encounter some minor problems when I came to assembling the parts together, or maybe it could be me. My seat slider is a bit stiff when I pull the lever, so my position is doesn’t roll smooth but it is still movable. My second issue I encountered was the gear shifter bar. In Australia we drive on the right side, so it’s logical that I would like my gear shifter on my left. However I couldn’t slide the two connect tubing together. Slightly bent it gets struck when it reaches a particular position. So no I’ve temporary bolted on my right and will follow it up with the Rseat staff. Apparently their reponsie time are terrible. They do have a chat service however it’s not often online. With 3 years warranty, I have time to alert them with my issue. There are also some very tiny paint chips that I could go on winging about, however just give me the enjoyable immersive experience as a racing driver and I’ll forgive you for not being ridiculously perfect.

In my opinion RS1 is a stylish modern racing sim cockpit, it’s a classy furniture that sits well together with my living space and I have no regrets with this temptation. Hope this article gave you a better insight of the Rseat RS1 for you to make your own decision and choice.